President Trump's Son Spent the Morning Promoting Conspiracies About Parkland Survivors

In the days after their classmates were massacred by a disturbed kid who was allowed to purchase military-style weaponry, hundreds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High survivors have become fiery gun-control advocates. Their message is simple: Nikolas Cruz never should have been able to buy the assault weapon that he used to mow down 17 people in mere minutes.

These kids just survived a hellish bloodbath inside their own school hallways. Anyone with basic human compassion would let them have a say about what happened to them.

The site's big conspiracy about Hogg is that — hold onto your pants — his dad is a retired FBI agent. It's a fact that Hogg has repeatedly mentioned to TV reporters and is not at all a secret.

The idea, if you can call it that, is that somehow his father — who, again, is no longer with the FBI — is using his son as a televised mole to distract from the FBI's failure to properly investigate tips about Cruz by pushing for gun control instead.

This entire line of attack on the post-Parkland gun-control debate is asinine to begin with. It's in no way a contradiction to believe both that the FBI failed massively and that no civilians should have access to assault weapons like an AR-15.

Trump Jr.'s promotion of these conspiracies on Twitter is just the latest in the right wing's quick about-face from "thoughts and prayers" to outright attacks on the innocent kids who walked away from a killing field in their high school and are now fighting to prevent another from ever occurring again.

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There's another way to read these attacks: The far right is worried that Parkland will finally force real gun reform in a purple state like Florida. They're right to worry, because Parkland survivors aren't about to shut up.

More than a hundred Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students are en route this morning to Tallahassee to attend the funeral of Carmen Schentrup, a 16-year-old National Merit semifinalist gunned down by Cruz last week. Tomorrow they'll march on the state capitol to demand gun-control reform.

Will Tally's NRA-funded Republicans listen, or will they nod silently at Trump Jr.'s attacks on the kids trying to prevent another massacre?

Tim Elfrink is an investigative reporter and the managing editor of Miami New Times. He's won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.